Busy Bees Preschool
Good★ 5.0 on GoogleBirth to 8+Long established
A pre-school in Basildon for children from birth to 8+, open 08:00 to 14:40, 5 days a week. They do not publish prices, so that is the first thing to ask. Rated Good by Ofsted in September 2023. Open since 2019, with 26 places.
What you might pay
This setting does not publish its fees, and no national dataset holds them. This is what childcare costs across the council, as a starting point for the call.
What childcare usually costs in Essex
This is not this setting's price. It is the median hourly fee across all providers in Essex from the Department for Education's 2025 provider survey. No national data holds what an individual nursery charges, so ring and ask.
Places, hours and the day
Who they take, when they are open, and what a day there includes.
Where it is
SS15 5UHWhat the inspector found
One grade is one visit. A run of them tells you whether it has been good for years or has only just got there.
Ofsted inspector, 14 September 2023 · read the full report
What it is like to attend
Children arrive eager to see their friends and greet staff enthusiastically. They develop good communication skills. Staff continually introduce new words and use them in context to help children expand their vocabulary. Children enjoy listening to stories. They freely engage with staff, responding to their questions with increasingly more complex and longer sentences. Children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. They independently explore and engage in a wide range of activities. Children use their experiences from outside the setting and their imaginations in role play. For example, they drape material around each other to represent hairdressers' gowns. Children pretend to straighten each other's hair before using a mirror to show their 'customer' what they have done.
Staff provide children with endless emotional support. They are constantly on hand to praise their efforts and perseverance. Children feel valued and behave well. Staff identify children's interests and use these in their planning to help spark children's curiosity. This helps children to make good levels of progress. The curriculum is ambitious and continually supports what children need to learn next. Staff have a good understanding of when to step back and allow children to solve problems for themselves and when to support them. This helps to motivate and engage children in their learning.
What Ofsted told them to improve
To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should:
- support staff to provide clear and consistent messages to children to help them learn about healthy lifestyles and choices about food n consider ways to adapt the curriculum, particularly during routine activities and mealtimes, to keep all children consistently engaged and settled.
- 14 September 2023Good
- 4 October 2022Needs improvement
- 14 October 2021Needs improvement
Rated Good or Outstanding at 1 of the last 3 graded inspections.
Still missing for Busy Bees Preschool
- What it costs
- Funded hours
- Youngest age taken
- Meals
- Nappies
- Waiting list
No dataset holds any of this. Two parents telling us the same thing puts it on the page for whoever looks next.
What to ask them
None of this is in any national dataset and this setting has not published it, which is exactly why it is worth asking.
- What does it cost, all in? What is on top: meals, nappies, late pick-up, and what happens if you are late.
- Can I use my funded hours here? Whether they stretch them over the year, and the minimum days you have to book.
- Is there a place for my child's age? Baby rooms fill first and waiting lists are common.
- Who would my child's key person be? And how long have the staff been there. No dataset holds this and it matters more than anything above.
- Can I visit at a busy time? Mid-morning on a weekday tells you far more than an empty room after hours.
Pre-schools within a couple of miles
This one is first. Tick it and one or two others to see them side by side.